notebook on wooden table

Write Without Notes

Put your notes aside and write the first draft from memory. Follow the instinctive flow of the story so that you make unexpected connections as well as expected ones. Check your notes afterward for accuracy, but you will find that what you forget probably is best forgotten, and what you remembered in the flow of writing is what needs to be remembered.

— Donald M. Murray, Writing to Deadline: The Journalist at Work (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000), 125.

Ryan serves as a pastor at Grace Bible Church. His ministry ranges from preaching, teaching, and writing, to listening, being present, and walking with others through some of life’s most difficult experiences.

He lives with his wife and children in Escondido, California.

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